Monday, February 4, 2013

Help Bring Baby Home!

Meet the Ordelheides! They are hoping to add another child to their family and we want to help them! Please read their story and get to know them a little and learn how you can be a part of this amazing journey.

Love, Kanga Care

Two years ago, in January 2011, we were a family of four. We had our girl, we had our boy and we were living the American dream. Our company was successful, we had nice cars, we had no financial worry. That all changed when we heard God call us to adopt. He made it very clear that we were to be open to two children and that he would provide. It didn’t take us but a few days to jump in with both feet and say yes to this new adventure he was calling us to. We would abandon the American dream, sell what we could and cut our budget to bring our kids home!

After several months of paperwork here in the US we ventured to a small country in Eastern Africa, it was the country we felt calling our hearts. Prior to traveling we had a rough idea of how our trip would go, but that all changed when our driver failed to pick us up from the airport. After an hour trying to figure out what to do we found his number and we connected. We were taken to a guest house at which we were not planning to stay. At that house were two women who would forever change the face of our family! One woman was in the process of adopting from a particular baby home. She suggested we go visit. It was not a place we had planned on going, but there was another woman there from our state and we thought we’d go meet her. Upon arriving at the baby home I was asked to help feed the babies. Simple enough, right? In this moment my world changed. As I fed this malnourished, grieving child I felt God whisper, “This is your daughter.”

The next six months were spent saving every penny we could and selling all the “toys” we had, snowmobiles, motorcycles and extra vehicles. Those months were also high stress as we learned of the extreme corruption surrounding international adoption in the country our new daughter was in. We did some serious investigation into her story and the people in her story. We did not want to bring home a child who had a family who could care for her, or a child who was coerced away from her birth family. Unfortunately, in international adoption this is far too common. It was determined that there was no one for her in her country and so we proceeded.

In April 2012 we brought our daughter, Rosie, home! It was such a relief to be home with her. The next six months were the hardest six months of my life. Parenting a hurting, grieving child is physically demanding and emotionally draining. She was sad, angry and hurting and she took all those feelings out on us. We had late night rages and middle of the day melt downs, but we also had kisses, hugs and the building of a relationship. She is slowly learning to trust us, that we will not leave her, no matter how hard she pushes us.

You’ll recall that we felt God called us to be open to two children. We truly did believe this, yet after bringing Rosie home we were in no rush to start again. God was going to have to bring someone to us. In late November 2012 my husband was approached about shooting a video documentary with a mission team in Rosie’s birth country. He said yes, excited to visit her country again. We joked all that next week that perhaps my husband would meet our next child on his trip. One week later a picture of a sweet little face showed up in our inbox. This sweet face could not be ignored, he needed a daddy to teach him to pee standing up, he needed a mommy to teach him to cuddle and he needed sisters and a brother to color and play with. We said yes and away we went trying to see how fast we could get the paperwork done. We now sit with the paperwork completed and a financial hurdle to jump over. With Rosie’s adoption we were able to create cash flow to bring her home because we had about 15 months to prepare. This time we have 3 months and nothing left to sell. We have a generous community who has given more than we could imagine, but we still need about $6000 depending on travel costs. We are humbled by all the amazing people who have come into our lives, to walk alongside us, to help us bring our son home. We couldn’t be more grateful!